Riders
by wolfraven80
Summary: Kyle/Syrene 'Do you know,' she asked, 'the story of the pegasi's origins'


**Riders**

Kyle had been part of the group that had accompanied Princess Eirika to Port Kiris during the war. The port had been bustling with activity, sailors and dockworkers calling to each other, the masts of ships stabbing at the blue sky, but even though the salty scent of the sea had tickled his nostrils, it had mixed with the scents of stale beer and rotten fish. It was not as he'd remembered from that day a decade past when he had seen the Frelian coast.

"Come on, Kyle. What are you waiting for?"

"I'm just trying to take it all in. It's been so long..."

They stood together on a slight rise, little more than a rocky slope, but on such a clear day he could see for miles. In either direction lay the rocky Frelian coast and before him roared the ocean, glinting, diamond-studded in the afternoon sunlight. He breathed deeply of the sea salt air and let the roar of the breakers fill his ears. Gulls squawked as they circled overhead. On the shore hopped tiny sandpipers, pecking at scraps in the rocks.

Syrene quirked an eyebrow, but she was smiling and her eyes danced – with laughter, he thought. She was thinking he was stuffy; he was almost certain of it, yet as the wind picked up and whipped her hair around her face, he found he could not bring himself to worry much about it.

"The ocean will still be here tomorrow. And the day after. I promise it's not going anywhere."

"I know. I'm coming."

She held out her hand. He took it.

Syrene led him down to the shore and they walked along the wave-polished stones for a time. She cautioned him about slippery spots and slick seaweed as they moved beneath the high tide line as the waves lazily crawled back up the shore. Shelled creatures stranded by the tide – clams, and molluscs, and mussels (he could never tell them apart) – waited for the water's return, hidden among the rocks. They walked until they reached a stretch of shore that was sandy; rocks of various sizes were piled in heaps where they'd been cleared off the sand.

With a contented sigh, Syrene sank down onto the sand, hugging her knees and looking out towards the waves. "I used to come here all the time when I was younger, before my duties began to keep me so busy."

"You're lucky to have had this place," he said and then fell silent. He felt that he should speak, but somehow the sound of the waves seemed to fill the silence to bursting, fill it so that a single word would make the world overflow and turn the gentle rhythm of the lapping waves into a cacophony.

It wasn't until the wooden figurine was in his hand that he realized he'd pulled it out of the pouch at his belt. He rubbed his fingers against the familiar shape of the small wooden pegasus, the fine lines of its mane, the rounded marks of feathers on wings folded daintily against its body, the smooth line of its spine. It was so well crafted she could have sold it for a nice price, but instead Syrene had offered it to him as a present all those years ago when they had spent a single day together in Frelia.

"Do you know," she asked, "the story of the pegasi's origins?"

"Hmm?" He hadn't noticed her gaze until that moment, but now he found he could not look away from those brilliant green eyes. "No, I don't."

"It's said that long ago there were unicorns in Frelia – maybe all over the world. They were so beautiful, even a glimpse of one could make a man weep, and the touch of its horn could heal any wound. The Demon King despised them of course and during the War of the Stones his armies harried the unicorns and killed many of them. The remaining unicorns made their final stand in Frelia, but the monstrous enemies drove them to the shore and into the sea. When they realized there was no escape, that they would be annihilated, those that still had some strength used the last drops of their magic to change themselves."

Syrene paused, a sly smile on her lips. Kyle quirked a brow, curious. "Changed themselves?"

She nodded, her smile wider than ever. "With the last of their magic, they gave up their horns for wings. They became the pegasi and flew out of the ocean and away from the Demon King's armies."

"So that was the end of the unicorns then?"

"Maybe," Syerene replied. "But then some people say that those that didn't have the strength to fly or the strength to fight simply stayed in the sea, that even now you can glimpse them sometimes in the waves, that they guard the ocean. Now and then they're said to rescue a sailor or a child who's fallen in."

"So your pegasus is really a hornless unicorn then?"

Syrene laughed. "I don't know. I'm sure he'd like to think so." She rose to her feet, tugging him up along with her. His heart thumped as she removed her outer tunic, her belt pouch, and her boots, so that she was clad only in a fitted inner tunic and leggings. "Are you going to swim or are you going to just stand there?"

Kyle's brow crinkled as he shielded his eyes from the sun to look at her. "Is it safe to swim in the ocean?"

Her laugh was as light as the chirp of the sandpipers. "It is if you're careful and know where the tides are tame. Which I do," she added and then leaned in and brushed a kiss over his lips.

His eyes remained fixed on her as she strode away from him towards the waves that rose up the beach to meet her, lapping at her bare feet like affectionate pups. Long hair dancing around her in the wind, she waded in up to her waist. He was already tugging off his second boot, the toes of his one bare foot curling into the soft sand, revelling in its silky cold, when she dived into the waves.

As he watched the sea foam curling around her, watched her sleek form among the waves, he thought that perhaps those last unicorns left behind by the pegasi had not stayed in the water after all. He thought perhaps they had stepped out of the waves to become the pegasi's riders.

**The End**

**A/N:** Written for penandpaper to fulfil a prompt request on my LJ. The prompts were "unicorn" and "ocean" so my mind immediately went to _The Last Unicorn_. I've always had a soft spot for Kyle/Syrene so I can finally say I wrote a little piece about them.


End file.
